I always find it kind of weird that matriarchal cultures in fiction are always “women fight and hunt, men stay home and care for the babies” because world-building-wise, it makes no sense

think about it. like, assuming that gender even works the same in this fantasy culture as it does in ours, with gender conflated with sex (because let’s be real, all of these stories assume that), men wouldn’t be the ones to make the babies, so why would they be the ones to care for the babies? why is fighting and hunting necessary for leadership?

writing a matriarchy this way is just lazy, because you’re just taking the patriarchy and just swapping the people in it, rather than actually swapping the culture. especially when there are so many other cool things you could explore. like, what if it’s not a swap of roles but of what society deems important?

maybe a matriarchy would have hunting and fighting be part of the man’s job, but undervalued. like taking the trash out or cleaning toilets: necessary, but gross, and not noble or interesting. maybe farming is now the most important thing, and is given a lot of spiritual and cultural weight.

how would law work? what crimes would exist, and what things would be considered too trivial to make illegal? who gets what property? why?

how would religion work? how would you mark time or the passage into adulthood? what would marriage look like? if bloodlines are through the mother, bastardy wouldn’t even be a concept - how does that work?

what qualities would be most important in a person? how would you define strength or leadership? what knowledge would be the most coveted and protected? what acts or roles are considered useless or degrading?

like, you can’t just take our current society and say you’re turning it on its head when you’re just regurgitating it wholesale. you have to really think about why things are the way they are and change that.

September022017

This is Kamala, also known as goblin, turkey, or chicken. Her favorite things include my bed, her cookie box, warm laundry, sun, and running around jumping on my face anywhere from 3-7 in the morning. She’s a jerky turkey but I love her.

Because gay isn’t only 17 year old white kids that come from middle to upper class homes. And Black Love isn’t just straight couples that enforce gender roles and women with perfect bodies, a quiet tongue, and a womb always ready to create. This is also the face of Black Love. And its beautiful. -ShiShi

And it don’t stop,
just smashing Unda’s story, MC Escher that’s my favorite MC, through my brain like a damn meat grinder and here’s that quality meat pulp right here on screen. Karkat is probably my favorite to draw, if it wasn’t obvious.

Alright so Liz, or UNDA rather, has this amazing story going right now called M.C. Escher that’s my favorite MC and holy shit it’s so so good. These are a few of my favorite bits. I actually have a lot more than these on paper…

well I’m a hopeless romantic and nothing quite gets me like a good old fashioned emotional thrashing that you can only find in QUALITY SLOWBURN FICS

and boy howdy is this QUALITY, Liz is a god damn wizard. MY THANKS LIZ FOR YOUR GLORIOUS CONTRIBUTION to one of my favorite pairs